Automatic railway-switch.



J. A. JACKSON.

AUTOMATIG RAILWAY SWITCH.

PATENTED MAR. 3, 1908.

APPILIUATION FILED JULY 25. 1907.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

JOHN A. JACKSON, OF ITHACA, NEW YORK.

AUTOMATIC RAILWAY-SWITCH.

Speecaton of Letters Patent.

Patented March 3, 1908.

Application iiled July 25. 1907. Serial No. 385.535.

To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN A. JACKSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ithaca, in the county of Tompkins and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Railway- Switches, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in automatic railway switches and more especially to that class of switches and signal mechanism by means of which the switch and the signal indicating the position of the switch are actuated in any manner desired by the trainmen upon the locomotive or car of the train passing over the track.

The position of a suitable signal or lantern placed lnear the track is altered at each movement of the switch and the exact position of the switch is thus indicated to the engineer upon an approaching train.

Switch actuating plates are placed between the rails at each side of the entrance to a switch and by means of a suitable operating lever upon the train a pivoted contact member is brought into engagement with said plates and the switch thus operated at the will of the engineer either before or after passing the switch. By this device many accidents may be avoided by lessening the liability of running into an open switch.

I further provide a hand lever of the usual construction by which the switch may be 0perated from the track-road-way.

The invention is adapted to operate switches of all kinds and in use upon street rail-roads as well as steam and all other kinds of rail-roads.

With these general objects in view and others which will appear as the nature of the improvements is better understood, the invention consists substantially in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings forming a part of this application and in which like characters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views, Figure 1 is a plan view of a switch embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the switch-changer. Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the switch-changer. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view on -line 6--6 of Fig. 5 looking in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 7 shows details of the dog and ratchet mechanism of the operating pinions; Fig. 8 is a side elevation and Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view of the tripping means attached to a car truck. Fig. l0 shows details of an automatic return device for said tripping means. Y

Referring in detail to the drawing, 11-11 are movable switch-rails connected by rods 12-12; any suitable switch signal target or lantern 13 is provided in connection with the movable rails for the purpose of indicating to which track the switch is set.

At a suitable distance in front of the switch 11--11 and between and parallel with the rails 14-14 of the main track is disposed a switch actuating mechanism, capable of being operated from the moving train by a trip, all of which is hereinafter` fully described. An exact duplicate of this switch actuating mechanism is also placed between the movable switch rails and at a point a short distance down the track from the ends of. said switch rails.

I will now proceed to describe the complete actuating mechanism, especial attention being given to Figs. 4 and 5 as showing paln and sectional views respectively of the same. Depressible slanting plates 15-15 are hingedat their apex to a hinge-bar 16 running through ametal T piece 17, having the base of its standard designated 18, provided i'lush with the upper faces of said plates at the central point of their hinged apex. The plates 15 are `positioned between triangular shaped guide frames 1.9 opposite lower points of said plates being provided with guide pins 2() sliding in suitable grooves 21 in opposite inner faces of the frames at points near the bases of the latter. The plates are normally held by means of a multiple of springs 22 in an inverted V shape as shown by Fig. 5. A substantially T shaped piece of metal 23 is secured to the cross piece of the member 17 and having its standard suitably toothed to form a rack 24 meshing with the teeth ofa pinion 25 mounted upon the stub-shaft 26 in a manner hereinafter set forth. Stub-shaft 26 is mounted in suitable standards 27-27 and a power pinion 28 is keyed to said shaft. An operating rod 29, revolubly mounted in the standard 30 is provided with a pinion 61 at its one end which meshes with the pinion 28 and where,- by said rod is revolved, A crank 31 is provided in the rod 29, and two-part connecting bars 32 are secured to eyes 33 carried by the movable switch-rails, said bars being provided at one end with collars 34 loosely mounted upon the wrist of said crank. rI`urn buckles 35 are provided to connect the parts of said bars 32. It will thus be seen that a depressing of the plates 15,-15 against the pressure of the springs 22 will carry the toothed rack 24 downward and cause the pinion 25, stubshaft 26, pinions 28 and 6l, together with the rod 29 to revolve; which revolution is utilized to throw the movable switch rails 11-,11 through the further agency of the crank 31 and connecting bars 32-32.

rI he plates being forcibly depressed are returned to their normal position by the springs 22 and to prevent a reverse revolution from being imparted to the mechanism described by the rack 24 in its upward movement, I provide the pinion 25 with suitable internal ratchet mechanism as shown in detail in Fig. 7. The shaft 26 being provided with a toothed. wheel 36 engaging when revolved in only one direction with spring pressed pawls 37 in any suitable number and carried on the interior of said pinion 25 when revolved in an opposite direction said pawls are adapted to slide over the toothed surface of the wheel 36 without engaging the teeth thereof; the last mechanism described being that of the well known ratchet and pawland the same in any form may be applied to my invention in this connection. Applying the same in my switch actuator, it wil be seen that the upward movement of the rack 24 will cause the pinion 25 to be revolved without imparting any motion whatever to the shaft 26 and the other mechanism.

The apex of the angle formed by the hinged plates l5 is substantially the height of the track rails as s hown in Fig. 2; the ties 37 being employed to support the plates and part of the structure but the main support being afforded by deeply embedded ties 38 supporting a floor 39 upon which are mounted the standards 27 and 30; a suitable collar 40 is provided in said floor through which the rack 24 slides in its up and down movement, said collar acting as a guide whereby the teeth of said rack are retained in a meshed relation with the teeth of pinion 25.

I have now fully described. my improved manner of shifting movable switch rails by the depression of hinged plates positioned between the rail-road tracks` The main object of my invention being to operate the switch from the locomotive of an incoming train, Iwill now describe a means provided upon any part of a train but preferably at the forward part of the locomotive, for depressing the hinged plates 15-,15 This is illustrated in Figs. 8--910, in which 46 desigsso,53e l nates any convenient part of the locomotivey truck or frame to which in any well known manner is pivoted the trip-lever 47 having a roller 48 journaled in its operating end. For lowering said roller-end when desired to contact the same with the hinged plates for depressing the latter to throw the switch, I

provide a shaft 49 at a point beneath the other end of said trip-lever and lying perpendicular thereto; secured to the shaft beneath the trip-arm is the wedge bar 5() adapted upon revolution of the shaft 49`to contact the trip-arm at the curved surface thereof 5l, and to elevate said curved end thereby lowering the opposite or roller end. Upon said shaft 49 and at each side of the wedge-bar 50 is a curved guide plate 52. Secured to said shaft for revolving the same is the lever 53 having its outer end pivoted to the actuating rod 54, designed for use as a hand lever by the traimnan to govern thetrip ping means.

Hinged between the bifurcated lower end of the wedge-bar 50 is the strip 55 held suspended horizontally siightly below the shaft 49 and parallel thereto; after the roller end ofthe trip-lever has depressed the plates it is essential that the said lever return automatically to its normal inactive position; this is necessary to prevent contacting with another set of plates and also to render the same in position to be actuated when desired and the said strip 55 is designed for this purpose. In

operation, the roller 48 being narrower than the width of the plates 15, contacts, depresses and passes over the latter between the side frames 19-19 but the strip 55, being slightly longer than the width of the plates l5, in following after the roller will contact and rub over the stationary angular guide frames 19, thereby elevating said strip and tripping the wedge-bar 50 to which it is hinged, out of engagement with the curved surface 5l of the trip-lever 47. The trip lever being somewhat overbalanced in weight on the curved end, said end will descend upon removing the wedge-bar from therebeneath and the roller end thereby elevated automatically. This hinge, as shown in Fig. 10, being capable of a one-quarter revolution for free operation.

I also prefer to provide means located near the entrance to the switch for operating the same by hand. In this connection I provide a pinion-l1 upon the shaft 26, said pinion being identical in construction to pinion 25 already fully described but in place of the actuating vertical rack 24, I provide a horizontally movable toothed rack 42, the teeth of which mesh with the teeth of pinion 4l. The outwardly extending arm 43 of rack 42 projects a suitable distance at the side of the track to connect with any well known form of hand switch; the same being here shown as connected at its extreme outer end through the link 44 with the pivoted hand lever 45 by action of which the arm 43 and rack 42 are given longitudinal movement resulting in revolving the rod 29 and the actuation of the switch rails.

Although the ratchet pinion 41 may be placed upon the shaft 26 so as to engage with and rotate the latter in either direction desired, I have preferred to rotate said pinion and shaft by a movement of the arm 43 in the outward direction as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1, such movement causing the shaft 26 to revolve within the other ratchet pinion 25 but without moving the latter. A reverse movement of said arm 43 revolves the pinion 41 as a ratchet without contacting to revolve the shaft 26. Similar corresponding results to those accomplished by said movement of the arm 43 are effected by movement of the rack 24 and it is therefore evident that either the hand lever or trip actuated plates may be employed irrespective of the other for moving the switch as desired.

By the arrangement of the ratchet pinions 25 and 41 as here shown, it will be seen that the rotation imparted to the shaft 26 can only be in one direction; it is therefore evident that the actuating rod 29 and crank 31 will make complete revolutions and in the opposite direction to that of the shaft 26; as a one-half revolution of the said crank and rod is adapted to throw the movable switch rails exactly the desired distance it is necessary that all of the described pinions and racks be adapted to so revolve the actuating rod 29 exactly one-half a revolution at each actuation of either the plates 15 or arm 43.

The operation of this construction will be readily understood from the foregoing description. The movable switch rails being in the position shown in Fig. 1, a train coming from a direction indicated by the left of the drawing would pass the switch in a straight line upon the main track 14. Should the engineer desire to have the train take the siding, one rail of which is indicated as at 56, he would pull lever 54 thus causing the trip y roller 48 to de )ress the plates 15 and throw the switch rais to a reverse position; the trip arm 47 is immediately automatically returned to its normal position by means of the strip 55 having engaged the side frames 19 as described; after passing into the switch the movable switch rails may be moved to their former position and the switch closed by again operating the trip in a similar manner to that just set forth. For this second operation I provide a second trip actuating mechanism as shown. This operation may be reversed by opening the switch from a train passing out and again shutting the switch after exit. So also may the switch be closed from a train coming in the opposite direction upon the main track. The object that I have accomplished being that after noting the position of the switch from observing the signal 13, the engineer upon an approaching train may by operating the lever 54 within his cab, throw the switch to an opposite position, and after passing the entrance to the switch in either direction and either upon the switch or main track he may throw the movable switch rails in the opposite position from which he found them.

".v'hile the forms of the invention herein shown and described are what are believed to be preferable embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the same are susceptible of various changes in the form, proportion and minor details of construction and the right is therefore reserved to modify or vary the invention as falls within the spirit and scope thereof.

It is pointed out, that whenever the switch rails are positioned in either one of their two normalpositions, the actuating crank 31 lies in a horizontal position, thereby iirmly locking the rails by the centering of the said crank at every operation. rI`he actuating mechanism is completely protected from storms and outside tampering by being completely inclosed as fully described, the hinged plates 15-15 acting as a gable roof for the housing.

The hinged movement of the strip 55 is adapted to trip the wedge-bar out of engagement only upon a forward movement of the train. During a backward movement of the train at a time when the bar 50 is firmly engaged with the curved end 51, the hinged strip will contact the parallel oblique side guide plates 19 and will freely move upon its described hinge without imparting any motion to said bar 50. Upon a forward moving of the train, however as described, the limit of the free hinge movement will be reached and the strip 55 will bear upon the bifurcated end of the wedge bar 50 to trip said bar out of its engagement.

Having thus described my invention and in what manner the same is designed for use,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In a switch, the combination with mov able switch rails, depressible hinged plates positioned between parallel guide frames, a toothed rack hinged with said hinged plates, a pinion mounted upon a shaft and meshing with the teeth of the rack, a depressing of' said hinged plates operating to depress the rack and revolve said pinion, a revoluble operating rod, meshing gears carried by said shaft and rod, a crank provided in said rod, connecting means between said crank and movable switch rails for actuating the latter.

2. In a switch, the combination with movable switch rails, depressible spring held plates positioned between parallel guide frames, a toothed rack hinged with said hinged plates, and moving therewith, ai

ratchet pinion mounted upon a shaft and operated by engagement with said toothed rack, to revolve said shaft upon depression of the rack, an operating rod provided with a crank and adapted to be revolved by the revolution of said shaft, connecting rods between. the movable switch-rails and the wrist of said crank for actuating the switch rails.

3. ln a switch, the combination with movable switch-rails, a hand operating lever in pivotal engagement with a toothed rack engaging a ratchet pinion mounted upon a revoluble shaft, an operating rod provided with acrank adapted to revolve by the action of said shaft, connecting rods engaging the wrist of said crank and the switch rails for actu ating the latter.

4. ln a trip operating mechanism, the combination with a truck, a pivoted trip-arm provided with a roller journaled in the oper-l ating end thereof, a wedge bar adapted to engage under the other end of said arm for depressing the roller end thereof. 4

5. ln a trip operating mechanism, the combination with a truck, a pivoted trip-arm provided with a roller journaled in the operating end thereof, a wedge bar carried by a revoluble shaft adapted to be manually rotated by a lever to force said bar under the other end of said arm for depressing the roller end thereof.

6. In a trip operating mechanism, the coml bination with a truck, a pivoted trip-arm provided vwith a roller journaled in the operating" end thereof, a wedge bar carried by a revoluble shaft beneath the other end of said arm, curved guide plates carried by said shaft on each side of said trip-arm and wedge bar, an operating lever secured to said shaft whereby the same is rotated to force said wedge-bar under one end of said trip-arm forcing said last named end upwardly and the roller thereof downwardly.

7. In a trip operating mechanism, the combination with a truck, a pivoted trip-arm provided with a roller journaled in the operating end thereof, a wedge bar carried by a revoluble shaft beneath the other end of said arm, curved guide plates carried. by said shaft on each side of said trip-arm and wedge bar, an operating lever secured to said shaft whereby the same is rotated to force said wedge-bar under one end of said trip-arm forcing said last named end upwardly and the roller thereof downwardly, and a swinging hinged plate carried by said wedge-bar for disengaging the latter -from its contact with the trip-ari'n.

In testimony whereof l affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JCI-IN A. JACKSON.

Wvitnesses:

H. J. Boop, G. ll. SAUNrmus. 

